52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Week 38. Prompt - Map It Out

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks

Week 38

Prompt – Map it Out

Malcoci, Tulcea District, Dobrudscha, Romania

 

It was early 1840's when the first German Colonists set foot in the Dobrudscha District.  Strangely they were not from Germany but from Bessarabia.  And those Germans had only arrived in Bessarabia in the previous 40 years from their homeland of Germany and in some cases from Alsace, France.

At this time The Dobrudscha Area would have belonged to Turkey and under The Ottoman Empire. These Bessarabians left their allegiance to the Czar of Russia and pledged an allegiance to a Sultan of The Ottoman Empire!  Of course, as in most immigration, the German immigrants had to be in good standing, not have been accused of crime, and the ability to work in farming and other crafts.

Bill's 2X Great-grandfather was Ignatius Hoffart.  While looking for any information on Malcoci, I discovered the website, Wild-Danube-Delta.com .  It had a short history of the city.

“The village was founded in 1843 by 25 German families, making it the first of a number of villages founded by German colonists in Dobrogea, led by Ignatiou (sic) Hoffart.”

Further I found this translation of Romanian Parliament Debates dated 7 May 2007.  It was about the old Catholic Church in Malcoci and it's demise.  Again it mentioned Ignatius Hoffart as founder. 

 Two separate on-line sights have listed Ignatius Hoffart as founder of Malcoci however I have not verified that by other sources.  Ignatius Hoffart married Marion Frank and they had several children. Their third child was Jacob Hoffart who is Bill's great-grandfather. 

Jacob and Eva were married 25 October 1885 in Romania.  They had 10 children and all were born in Romania.  One child died in Romania.   In 1913 Jacob and Eva Hoffart and 8 of the 9 remaining children immigrated to Canada.   They left from Antwerp, Belgium aboard a vessel by the name of S.S. Montreal.  They arrived in Quebec, Canada on 20 May 1913.  The 1921 Canada Census has Jacob and Eva settled on a farm in the area of Benson, Saskatchewan. 

The child who did not come at the same time as his parents was Rochus who is Bill's grandfather.  There is a family story that he fell ill at the time of boarding and was left behind.  He was hardly a child, he was 23 years old.  I am sure they weren't too worried about him being held back.  His immigration started with his departure from Glasgow, Scotland on 31 Jan 1914 arriving at St John, New Brunswick, Canada on 11 Feb 1914.   I am not sure where he lived during the 8 to 9 month stay.

Rochus' soon to be bride was Marian Gross was born in Romania and immigrated to Canada a few short months after Rochus.  Marion Gross was a passenger aboard the ship Dwinsk departing from Libau, Russia on 24 Mar 1914 and arriving in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada on 4 Apr 1914.  It feels like it was an arranged marriage but I do not know that for sure.  Rochus and Marion married a few months later on July 22, 1914.

From the time of their marriage until 1919 Rochus worked as a “boilermaker helper” in Aberdeen, South Dakota.  One or two of their first children were born in United States.  I have not been able to verify that.  None the less Rochus was in USA and at that time the draft was compulsory for WWI in USA.  He filled it out and dated the card June 5, 1917.  WWI ended and Rochus, Marion and family moved back to Canada.   His Border Crossing Card was filled out on 24 Jun 1919 at Big Muddy Crossing.  According to this card “the object of coming to Canada was to make a home taking up on land.”  He came across with $1000.00 in cash and belongings valued at $1060.00. He was admitted to Canada.

He took out his first homestead on Jun 7 1919 (yes that was two weeks before they moved to Canada) which was just north of Big Muddy Lake,  However part of his homestead was under water. He gave up this land and in May of 1929 he applied for his second homestead.  Their family had grown to 8 children. Bill's father, Anton Hoffart was born in Minton, Saskatchewan and was their 5^th child. 

Bill's 1^st cousin once removed is John Hoffart who is still living in Regina today.  He wrote this about the family's move to Neudorf.  Regina Hoffart is Anton's younger sister who is still living and in Saskatoon.

Bill's father, Anton (Tony) Hoffart married Clara Jahnke in Killaly, Saskatchewan in 1952 and they moved to Saskatoon where there children were born.  Their oldest son, William (Bill) Hoffart was born in Saskatoon.  Bill and I married in 1975 in Saskatoon.  We lived a year in Saskatoon and then moved to Regina for Bill's first engineering job.  We moved in the spring of 1989 to Edmonton, Alberta.  In September of 1996 we moved to Calgary, Alberta.  In the summer of 2015 we retired to Kelowna, British Columbia. However we moved back to Calgary in May of 2019.

The Hoffarts in my family tree begin in Germany or maybe Alsace, France. They immigrated to Bessarabia, to Malcoci, to Canada with a short time spent in Northern United States before settling in Benson, Saskatchewan.  Rochus Hoffart settled in Big Muddy / Minton before they moved north to Neudorf and then on to Regina.  In the next generation (Tony Hoffart) moves from Killaly to Saskatoon where he lived out the rest of his days.  And in our generation Bill and I moved from Saskatoon to Regina, Edmonton, Calgary, Kelowna and back to Calgary.  Our children, lived in Regina, Edmonton and Calgary.  Jackie moved to Vancouver for university.  Upon graduation she  moved to Omomichi, Japan and then to Tokyo, Japan and then on to London, England and came back to Vancouver, British Columbia.

The Hoffart name has travelled westward landing almost 1/2 of the way around the globe. Does it end there?  Who knows?

Wendy